Friday, July 6, 2012

Good Afternoon! This is one of the little projects I did in the bathroom renovation at the Boardwalk condo. I turned a plain Jane, ugly mirror-framed mirror into an awesome STARFISH mirror! I can't tell you how many compliments I get about this mirror. It's awesome! It was a little work, and definitely a trial & error process, but I finally figured it out :) Here's a quick little gander at the finished product.

Giving the thumbs up because I'm super excited that this project is complete!

Here's a quick look at my inspiration pic with a hefty price tag of $2200. ouch!

To be honest, when I started the starfish mirror, I was thinking "now I TOTALLY get why this mirror costs $2200. It's alot of work! And A LOT of starfish!" Looking at that mirror now, I realize that there are probably about a thousand starfish on that mirror. I couldn't fit that many on mine, also, with all the layers of starfish, that mirror probably measures pretty deep. And I don't have that much space to work with. So I can't have that many layers. The bathroom faucet would get in the way. So, I ordered some starfish on eBay, between small and medium size, and I purchased some large starfish at a dollar store that we have here on Panama City Beach. With starfish and caulk in hand, I was ready to build myself a mirror!

Here's what I started with. A boring builders mirror with a mirror frame.

Next, I painted the frame of the mirror the same color as the wall. This will keep the mirror from reflecting the underside of the starfish and help hide the ugly mirror frame.

My original plan was to use caulk to hold the starfish together. The caulk would hold the starfish to the mirror, which is great.

Caulking the starfish

Then I started sticking them up on the frame

Then they started falling off. So I tried more caulk....

The extra caulk worked! For a while...... then they started to fall off again. The caulk held the starfish to the mirror REALLY well, once it was dry. I had to figure out a way to hold them to the mirror while they dried. Enter my friend, the hot glue gun. I started applying both caulk AND hot glue, and my problem was solved :)

Once I had my layer on the bottom, I didn't have to use caulk anymore. Hot glue works fine when gluing starfish to starfish. If you look closely on the right side of the mirror frame, you see that I had to remove parts of the legs of starfish. The funny thing is, up to this point, I had handled the starfish SO gently. Then it was time to remove parts of the legs. Let me tell you, you do NOT have to be gentle with starfish. Those guys are TOUGH! I had to cut it as much as possible with scissors, then bend it back and forth until it broke off :)

More layers on the mirror...

I had to use tape to hold some of the starfish on the bottom layer in place, with the weight of the new layer on top. I think that they started to slide because these were the few starfish that I didn't use hot glue on.

And THIS is what it looks like when you're done!!! If this was a piece for a mantle or entryway, I would add more layers. But for the bathroom, this worked just fine.

If anyone makes their own starfish mirror, PLEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEE post a link! I'd love to see what ya'll come up with :) I think my next starfish project will be an awesome wreath for the door, like this.....

7 comments:

The mirror looks great! I would love to invite you to share this on Saturday Show and Tell. My readers would love this and some of the other posts on your blog. Come join us at http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com/saturday-show-tell-20 Thanks and have a great weekend.-Mackenziehttp://www.cheeriosandlattes.com

Hi there, I’m sure you did this with nothing but good intent. But you may not know that starfish are a keystone species for coral reefs. They are being stripped from the ocean for sale and it damages the places left behind. We are losing starfish and reefs all over the world. It’s tragic to do that to decorate a mirror.

Monica, Someone told me to use jewelry glue not a hot glue gun. Also was told not to place this mirror in the bathroom because the starfish will get moldy. Is there any truth to that? How do you clean the dust off. I am going to make this. I was thinking of gluing fabric around the edge and them gluing the starfish on. Let me know if it is holding up. Thanks